


Shared Confidence

by LyriaBlackFrost



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Insecurity, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 15:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17962766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyriaBlackFrost/pseuds/LyriaBlackFrost
Summary: It was difficult for Mishima not to worry about not being good enough for his closest friends.





	Shared Confidence

Mishima asked himself for the twelfth time that day why he had asked both Akira and Ryuji to go to his house, play computer games in his room.

Not that he wasn’t happy with his friends’ company, but... To make it short, they were cruel to him. _Really_ cruel.

“C’mon, Mishima!” said Ryuji, giving him a light slap on the back. “You just have to time it right!”

“I know...” said Mishima, furrowing his brow at the monitor, concentrating in the action game they were taking turns playing. “But it’s harder than it looks.”

“Yeah, Ryuji...” agreed Akira. “Don’t judge him just because he’s bad at it.”

Akira’s words were enough to make Mishima break his concentration and jump straight into a hole. He turned to his friend with an annoyed face.

“I’m not that bad!” he said. “You’re the ones who won’t let me concentrate!”

Ryuji and Akira exchange brief, funny looks.

“Yeah?” said Ryuji. “You mean you can do it if we stay quiet?”

Mishima opened his mouth, hesitating. It was enough for his friends’ smiles to grow wider.

“Oh... I think he’s just trying to throw all the blame at us,” said Akira.

“I’m not!” insisted Mishima with a pout. “Fine, then... You two stay quiet, and I’ll finish this level in no time!”

“Looks like someone got determined...” observed Akira.

“Yeah,” agreed Ryuji, to then turn his gaze to Mishima. “Show us what you got, Yuuki!”

Mishima barely had the time to recover from that before Akira spoke as well:

“You can do it, Yuuki!”

_Those idiots_... They knew that would get him all flustered: despite their friendship, Mishima still wasn’t used to being called by his first name by people other than his family, and it was always enough to make his face burn and brain temporarily freeze. He wouldn’t let them notice it, though... Not that time.

Mishima focused his attention on the game, proceeding carefully through that scenery. He could feel their gazes on his back, but tried to ignore them as much as he could. Somehow, he managed to advance past the monsters that were killing him every time.

He could do it.

The level was close to the end, and a feeling of victory took Mishima — too soon, since, when he could already see the end, he managed to get ambushed by a big monster. Maybe he could have done it if, in his despair, he hadn’t somersaulted into an abyss and his death.

“No!” he yelled, frustrated.

The sound of laughter behind him only made his annoyance grow stronger. He glared at the other two, offering the controller to them.

“Alright, then,” he said. “If you’re so good, then why don’t you do it yourselves?”

Ryuji was the first one to take the controller, a smirk on his face.

“Okay,” he said. “Sit tight and watch me, Yuuki.”

“Go, handsome!” cheered Akira.

Mishima couldn’t tell if what annoyed him the most was the “Yuuki” or the fact that Ryuji simply winked at Akira, not seeming bothered in the least by his words.

Or the fact that he finished the level without dying once.

“Too easy,” he said, offering the controller to Akira. “Wanna try too, gorgeous?”

“Of course!” he answered.

Mishima groaned, spending the following minutes staring at the screen, hoping Akira would do something stupid that would wipe that grin from his face.

He didn’t, and managed to finish the level in a record time.

“You’re cheating!” complained Mishima.

“You know I’m not,” answered Akira. “You’re just bad.”

Mishima opened his mouth to answer, but changed his mind. It wasn’t like he was particularly bad at that game, or games in general... But, having people watching him just made him all nervous, to the point he was constantly questioning if his friends thought he was pathetic. Maybe he cared too much about being judged by others, or maybe Ryuji and Akira’s opinions were particularly important to him, but he couldn’t just see that game as what it was: a simple computer game. Instead, he saw it as a test, a way to prove himself good at something — maybe even better than them.

But, of course, such a thought only made things worse for him.

“Okay,” he admitted in a tired voice. “You’re right, I suck at it.”

To his surprise, however, his friends’ laughter stopped.

“What?” he asked, furrowing his brow.

“It’s not funny when you sound that dejected,” said Akira.

“Yeah,” agreed Ryuji. “We were just messin’ with you.”

“But it’s true,” insisted Mishima.

Neither of them answered for a while, just looking at each other in what Mishima concluded was some kind of telepathic conversation. A few seconds later, they focused their attention on him again.

“That’s because you get too nervous,” said Akira. “You try so hard not to fail, that you make it harder for yourself to succeed.”

Mishima felt his neck and face burning again: was he that easy to read?

“That’s right,” agreed Ryuji. “You should relax a little, dude... We’re your friends.”

“I know...” said Mishima, keeping his eyes low. “But it’s hard. I just... Don’t want you to think I’m bad at everything I do.”

“And who said we think that?” asked Akira. “C’mon... You run the phan-site alone, and you take it so seriously that we have to force you to take breaks from time to time.”

His words made Mishima raise his eyes again.

“Wait… Are you doing that now?” he asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ryuji groaned. “C’mon, dude... What do we have to do to make you just... rest?”

Mishima couldn’t find an answer. His silence made both his friends approach him, placing their arms around his shoulders, sandwiching him between them.

“Stop asking so much of yourself,” said Akira. “You already do more than you should for us.”

“And we just don’t know how to thank you for that,” added Ryuji. “So, if there’s anythin’ that’d make you happy, or…” he shrugged. “Y’know, just tell us.”

Mishima looked from one to the other, and, before he knew it, a light smile took his lips.

“I’m happy just by having you guys as friends,” he said. “But sometimes I’m afraid I’m just... Not good enough.”

“This is stupid,” said Akira.

“I know...” admitted Mishima. “I mean, part of me knows, but there’s always this voice in my head that tells me that you’ll get tired of me anytime.”

There was a brief silence following his words, and Mishima feared he had said something weird.

“Hey,” said Ryuji in a low voice. “To be honest, sometimes I feel the same way.”

His words made Mishima stare at him, wide-eyed.

“No way,” he said.

Ryuji shrugged.

“It’s true,” he said. “I mean, I can be fuckin’ dumb sometimes, and just can’t keep my big mouth shut. They’ve scolded me so many times already, that I don’t know how they still put up with me.”

Mishima simply stared at him: in his eyes, Ryuji was an example of confidence, and it had never crossed his mind before that he could feel insecure about such a thing.

“It’s the same with me.”

Akira’s voice made him turn his face to his other friend.

“Everyone just decided that I’m the leader, but...” Akira twisted his lips a little. “Sometimes I just don’t feel like I’m ready for it. I made some really stupid decisions, that put everyone in danger, and, even now, I’m still scared of messing it all up.”

Mishima looked from one to the other, still absorbing those words.

“But...” he said. “You guys are amazing! You have no reason to doubt yourselves like this!”

“Yeah...” Ryuji lightly squeezed his arm. “Same to you.”

Again, Mishima was unable to answer.

“So,” proceeded Akira, “when we laugh at you, or anything like that... It’s just because we like you, okay? Deep down, we know how amazing you actually are.”

Oh, no... Suddenly Mishima’s face started burning again, and he felt his eyes sting, as if he was about to cry. He tried to come up with an answer, a way to thank those two for being around him, and trying so hard to keep his own self-doubts at bay. However, before he could, he felt a pair of hands gently messing his hair.

“Cheer up, Yuuki,” said Akira.

“Yeah, Yuuki,” agreed Ryuji with a giggle. “Your cute smile is everything we need.”

“Stop...” asked Mishima, hiding his face in both hands.

“Never,” said Ryuji.

“Never,” agreed Akira.

Mishima groaned in protest, but, deep inside, those words made him happier than he ever imagined possible.

**Author's Note:**

> Yuuki, darling... They love you. Why can't you see that? You silly boy...
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this fic, kudos and comments are highly appreciated! ♥


End file.
